Visions Of The Future - Part 1 of 5

A 5 part audiovisual journey through some of the most amazing science fiction art from the imagination of some of the greatest artists of the 20th Century.
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ABOUT THIS VIDEO:
Part 1 of a 5 part montage of Sci-fi art from the second Golden Age of Science Fiction when books, magazines and films had some of the most amazing and memorable covers/artwork from artists like Peter Elson, Angus Mckie, Chris Foss and Tim White and John Berkey.

[@grantmcgowan8399]

As a kid growing up in the 70's, reading sci-fi and marvelling at book covers from the likes of Chris Foss.. I was very hopeful of a future where we could live our adult lives on a planet far from Earth...... What the hell happened to this glorious future? It still pisses me off!

[@AtticTapes14]

U have to play video games and movies for that

[@ohem]

This could have been our future, or our kid's future, had he chosen growth and prosperity instead limits and degrowth for a variety of excuses, like climate change, or back then global warming, as well as predation of the environment that could have been adressed, also the use of nuclear energy to make power a free utility.

[@xxnightopsxx]

I can totally understand. Unfortunately, the future has been postponed - indefinitely….

[@JackMyersPhotography]

These five videos are really excellent, I grew up with this art and I recognize much of it, and it’s a great trip down memory lane to see and recall all this great stuff that has influenced me so much for so long. Thanks for putting the five videos together. The music by tangerine dream is a great added bonus.

[@RIXRADvidz]

nice to see somebody kept all their OMNI magazines. I recognize most of the art from that magazine.

[@nrqed]

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe....Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.... I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser gate.......

[@xxnightopsxx]

Just scrolling through the comments and saw your classic quote, you might like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q6vXh2pqiNdsiZI

[@fredflinston41]

Coooool !

[@CATMANDOO-yo7oi]

Blade Runner

[@anomalie3034]

Rautger Hauer

[@scottimo3671]

All of those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain. RIP RUTGER.

[@videojeff01]

Now this is real sci-fi artwork. The best sci-fi artwork ever.

[@esepaisakid9545]

LSD and acid man

[@wastelandgames9409]

Back when sci-fi was actually good to look at

[@xxnightopsxx]

A lot of these images have been rattling around on my hard drives for some time after being downloaded (Google and Flickr are great for this) others I scanned from my collection of books. Namely - The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Great Space Battles, Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD - as well as the actual classic book covers. Time allowing I may put the whole lot of what I have up on Flickr to keep these great images alive.

[@walter0bz]

nice nostalgia, i can't remember the book i remember some of these from..

[@landryprichard6778]

Takes me back. Born in 1970, I remember the books well. Aliens In Space being the first. And Mechanismo was next. Snowballed from there.

[@Ahibasabala]

It's really strange seeing these paintings, just an opinion of course but i think they are made even more beautiful by their age, some look a little dated but not in a bad way, it's like they depict an alternate fantasy future of that particular time, i'm probably not making any sense :D

[@fredflinston41]

Don't Worry......You are making sense !

[@pspboy7]

Ah, the Terran Trade Authority! Where would we be without it hehe.

[@russcowley5860]

I have been fortunate not to be without it, Stewart Cowley is my father.

[@glider208]

The Tangerine Dream music is the topping on the cake. You should make some more videos using the Exit album.

[@xxnightopsxx]

Yes, I'm thinking about which way to go on that.

[@glider208]

Let me know when you get it done. Would love to view it.

[@minuteman360]

The future never seems to be what we think it will. So I am not so broken up about not seeing these things come to fruition. Who can even say we as a species will live to see those days.

[@mcpb9722]

And yet we see "Hollywood recycling" when each artwork is a new story to explore. Cheers

[@MrKirby2367]

Even at 47 I still love these books, where did the time go?

[@xxnightopsxx]

It drips away, sadly.

[@fredflinston41]

I Know What You Mean !!!!!!!!!!!!

[@ДжонСакер]

the author of this comment passed away this year. RIP

[@landryprichard6778]

Same. Born in 1970. That decade produced so much greatness.

[@StefanG5]

@@xxnightopsxx Hi. Just wanted to know what movie your KZbin profile pic is from? I remember it being from the 80's, but that's all.

[@rolandlemmers6462]

This video made me a Tangerine Dream fan.

[@xxnightopsxx]

They definitely had some great albums.

[@anomalie3034]

My soul is a combination of tekno and 70s sci fi art

[@billallen2126]

anyone can posit a sick future where all negative things are magnified. dystopian futures are dreamt up by those with a paucity of imagination; one could merely strive for something better: it begins with visualization.

[@luckyfair4174]

So true.

[@robertdavidson8932]

Fantastic video

[@derIImperator]

People of the 60s thought the world would look like this in 2000. Today 2000 felt like an century far away and cars still not fly... wich is sad 😞

[@ConstantXplorer]

Such stunning beautiful works.

[@WormulonDCP]

I prefer the style of science fiction aesthetics that these images demonstrate to the "Everything is an Ipod trope" that is getting over-used in games and movies. I don't mind that either, but these spaceships from the second golden age look meaner to me, more like industrial machines without the pretty casing, and perhaps more variety in styles. The Ipod trope will be retro eventually.

[@MrKFNeverGiveUp]

Excellent vid, the music worked perfect with the art. Faved.

[@pierrepaul591]

All this stuff was envisioned in the 70s when NASA had grand visions. Now the only place you can find them is 40 plus years later on KZbin. What happened?

[@xxnightopsxx]

We lost our way...

[@JB52520]

There is still hope. If we manage to master consciousness, all of the current limitations of humanity will be swept aside. There are many brilliant minds working on this problem. I hope they crack it soon, because beings as aggressive and foolish as ourselves cannot be trusted with the future of all known life.

[@pierrepaul591]

Sometimes I wonder if we Care for hope.

[@mega-bustershepard5537]

Truth be told this is in part due to the Shuttle program. Nixon wanted a cheap workhorse that was reusable. Nasa did have plans for a moonbase by the eighties and a mars mission by 2000 but it was deemed too expensive. Nixon slashed the space budget and we were stuck with a smaller program.

[@xxnightopsxx]

John Bryant - I just watched an interview with James Cameron about the Terminator sequels. He was saying they interviewed a lot of experts on AI and most of them were scared shitless. Maybe that is the next phase in evolution, the machines takeover while we're busy with Facebook and Snapchat. One thing is certain, machines will be able to go into space more easily than humans.

[@uncleshan]

its cool to see how alot of these iseas have filtered thru into modern sci fi movies. ( like those floating islands which look heaps like scenes from avatar etc ) i was telling my kids how all the sci fi was in books when i was their age and was glad you had posted this so i could show them exactly what i was on about. they were totally excited by it, just like i was. thanks for posting!

[@pieterkirby9794]

Grew up with a lot of these images in old hard cover books. Definitely influenced my own art style and taste. PS awesome to see you actually giving the artists credit and hopefully these KZbin videos inspire people to look them up and maybe even collect some works/publications.

[@trnstn1]

Reminds me of a quote, our current civilization is still nowhere near what these concepts dreamt of over 60 years ago. “Old Earthers had focused their intelligence on the small and the soft, not the big and the hard, and built a civilization that was puny and crumbling where physical infrastructure was concerned, but astonishingly sophisticated when it came to networked communications and software.” ― Neal Stephenson, Seveneves

[@stupidcosmonaut2429]

I would love to know the materials and medium used to create these!

[@Geekman333]

Many are done with an airbrush. None are digital, they pre-date computers by about twenty years.

[@xxnightopsxx]

Yes, and now they say in twenty years they will solve the issue of mortality. At least then we will all have more time to wait for all the other miracles of technology that have been promised over the years.

[@Blutroth]

I totally adore this art, is there novels from this time, who fit to the artworks? You know..like DUNE

[@BruecknerAmbient]

Great to see that You also included work by Jim Burns. Next to Foss and Woodroffe, he was one of the most brilliant artists in this genre...

[@xxnightopsxx]

Yes, he certainly had a very unique and recognizable style.

[@DavidBoura]

Tangerine Dream awesomeness

[@YOUCANTDOTHATONTELEVISION]

Who's watching in 2020? The future has been canceled. To look to the future we look to the past.

[@kingtigerbooks1162]

Great video from a wonderful channel. Art books have provided me a much-needed escape from real life. I have my easy chair set up with a desk, a lamp, a blanket and a cup of coffee. I spent many hours with dragons, unicorns, space battles, pixies, dark forests, giant robots and medieval knights. My art books are the best investments I ever made. My 3 favorite art books, all available from amazon, are: - Fantasy Art Paintings by Mike Hoffman - Infinite Worlds by Vincent DiFate - Great Fighter Jets of the Galaxy 1 by Tim Gibson

[@xxnightopsxx]

I'd add a few that come to mind apaprt from the TTA series - Sentinel by Syd Mead, as well as book of Tim White's amazing art - a lot of which featured on Heinlein covers, and The Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction which had some fantastic art in it. I would repeatedly go back and study those images endlessly....

[@guygruwier9665]

Extremely beautiful SF-Art ! Dating from the 70's (I recognize Chris Foss, Peter Elson, and many others). Made with their hands and minds, not from AI...

[@xxnightopsxx]

Absolutely, these are some the great masters of our time, not the stuff that poses as "art" whether it be much of the modern stuff or AI. Having said that, I have, out of nostalgia and a homage, thought of creating a video using AI images based on these greats. However, in my experience so far, I haven't found the technology quite up to it - yet. This also raises the prickly question then; what happens when we are able to create perfect projections of their art simply from a prompt...

[@Talcarnan]

The background music is Tangerine Dream's Stratosfear issued on the Virgin label October 1976

[@Khultan]

@jostpuur Ha ha ha BP did a great demonstration of advanced technology LOL

[@davidlewis1787]

I have always loved chris foss

[@freedomvigilant1234]

This is an amazing exposition of art and imagination.

[@seantobey3492]

Love the artwork and great choice of music. Tangerine Dream is the best synth band.

[@perferstrategy]

Syd Mead is a good artist too

[@pspboy7]

Peter Parker syd mead worked on bladerunner.

[@stevejordan7275]

...and Tron, Aliens, 2010, TimeCop, Strange Days, Elysium, Tomorrowland, and a bunch of video games, articles, several really lovely books of concept art, and loads of other stuff. When Hollyweird needs to know what he future could look like, Syd gets a call.

[@Restitutor_Orbis_214]

It is remarkable how much creative inspiration is sparked and depicted by these images alone. Everything in in 21st century science fiction seems so derivative and repetitive.

[@xxnightopsxx]

Totally agree, we're already hitting that wall with most AI "art" copies of copies of copies....

[@moaciromorsa4024]

E pensar que um dia, nosso planeta não existira mais, e toda essa ficção sera realizada em algum lugar do universo,seres humanos criando maravilhas, para o bem comum, construindo coisas maravilhosas melhorando a vida para toda forma de vida existente,que pena que nós não estaremos aqui, para ver toda esta maravilha que com certeza um dia existira,...um dia...

[@XanAxDdu]

hi i would suggest you to use force majeure ricochet tangram phaedra poland LOL thanks for choicing stratosfear i understand it is an iconic track

[@cashobuyer]

Insee most ifnthis and think of Jodorowsky's Dune that never was 😭😭😭

[@SocksWithSandals]

Reminds me of my childhood reading Asimov and E.E. Doc Smith. It was always a good moment to get to the point in the story where the scene on the book cover was unfolding. I used to imagine the artist being inspired by the same paragraph to visual the drama unfolding. Do children even read books these days?

[@jorgenpinoy1724]

Wow.... Just woooooooooow.....

[@git1958]

Great post xx. I recognise most of these images from my collection of SF pb's and hc's. I have a bedroom stacked and shelved with about 4,000 titles. I stopped this obsessive pursuit about 10 years ago. One of the reasons should be obvious. Did a bit of artwork myself,years ago, covers and illos for the BSFA. Love Hays and Whites work, for their detailed realism. In these post- airbrush days of CAD it's a pity that the pen and ink era is somewhat underappreciated. I.E.Virgil Finlay.

[@mikemccarthy7247]

How old are you Trevor? All these illustrations were done in the 70's and a bit in the 80's. I grew up on this stuff...made ,e want to be an artist. I know it's not the cgi we have today but it was all done by hand and for its time I think pretty original and pioneering as far as sci-fi illustration goes.

[@TheIraqiforce]

If only our knowledge was put in things like that and not war.

[@fredflinston41]

My TTA books by Stewart Cowley burned in a fire...Thanks for putting music to the images !

[@xxnightopsxx]

Glad there's people out there that love this stuff. I'm planning on doing an updated series as time allows.

[@duanemcclure8324]

Tangerine Dream! Now, this is something I haven't heard in more than 30 years! They were way ahead of their time. Very cool background music! And, very fitting! I dig it. They've got ALLOT of good stuff like this. You may have just started a new trend with an old band. Their time has come - again! What made you think to use them? You must be around my age. I'm 52 and grew up listening to them. Good tripping music. I wish I would have got to see them but they weren't around very long. About 10 years if I remember right. They were very exploratory like Pink Floyd but, you never heard them on the radio. You had to know somebody else that knew of them. At least, that's how I heard about them. I am a lifelong Floyd fan so someone thought I'd like them too, which I do. I guess you'd say they're prog like Floyd, ELP, Rush etc..Very cool video. Keep using them, please. Now, on to pt. 2. I hope you used them there too!

[@Defender78]

beautiful video but all of the panning and Ken-Burns effects made me dizzy. Why not just have the whole picture appear in frame?

[@RobCartwright]

You can easily find them online. Search any of the artists' names.

[@paddoww]

I've finally found this footage. @felcas.. I used to have this book. There were city ships, ships shaped like birds or cranes and war birds with ion engines, even a tarantula like atomic bomb craft that crawled around leaving craters and destruction. That book was way before its time

[@testbooster]

I had a lot of this space art in a few books I had...brings back great memories like my subscription to Omni Magazine, Science digest. Does anyone remember Omni magazine had a TV show also?

[@xxnightopsxx]

+testbooster I remember buying Omni magazine very month. Great stuff...

[@fredflinston41]

Yes OMNI the magazine Science Fiction an Science Fact !

[@fredflinston41]

Yes....the magazine of science fact and science fiction (My Favorite) !!!!

[@ttracemusic]

THANK YOU!!! Had a lot of these images in a book when a was a kid.

[@xxnightopsxx]

My intention was to to try and group the images by artist and add titles of the book/magazine/film the image was done for - but realised I was going to create an impossible job for myself in terms of trying to organise and research it along with the time involved.

[@TheUndert0ker]

oh man i love these old books. food for the imagination. the terran trade authority series and galactic encounters series are some of my favorites.

[@appidydafoo]

The work of Chris Foss pops like crazy in context, evergreen

[@xxnightopsxx]

A unique style for certain....

[@elidrissii]

Instead of looking at the glass half empty, look at it this way. You're at literally the best time that any human has ever lived in. Be grateful.

[@pedrodiaz5540]

Great, all I have to do was turn the sound to mute and really enjoy the drawings, awesome work of art.

[@xxnightopsxx]

Each to his own, try some Beachhouse or Max Cooper. Whatever get's you into the void....

[@MadCat-75]

So many chris foss pictures... i love his art!

[@xxnightopsxx]

Tangerine Dream - Stratosfear and Rubycon

[@rapturoussex]

Anyone know where I can buy a book of this type of art?

[@nw6231]

Anyone know if there is a book with this art shown in the videos??? Thanks

[@xxnightopsxx]

I'd look on Amazon for SF art. Some books you can pickup new or used. I think there's still a current one by Chris Foss and his work.

[@tompalmer5986]

A good project for the next few decades would be to find a cost effective way to desalinate sea water. Why not try to get wealthy philanthropists to offer a billion dollar prize to anyone who can do this? (By "cost effective" I mean competitive with the watershed in temperate climates.)

[@milxl]

AND THE MUSIC MATCH PERFECTLY THANKS !

[@しょうと-b6h]

すごいきれい❗

[@AiVaultGuy]

this is the most magical stuff I've seen on youtube, this channel deserver millions of subcribers and I'll make sure that happens

[@81mrlz]

I remember when I was young and was in the library i found a book with these pictures, until today this fascinates me

[@unclesloppy8518]

this video is what introduced me to Tangerine Dream. they quickly became my favorite band of all time. in a way, this video changed my life. thank you, Nightops.

[@xxnightopsxx]

You know, it's all the great posts and particularly posts like this that make all of this worthwhile. I have a very broad taste in music, and was introduced to TD in Serbia when I was gifted a copy of Stratosfear on a visit there. Amazing album, I've read many books to their music, especially that album, including Dune. The two go together brilliantly....

[@palantir135]

Forgot the name of the book but I bought it about 45 years ago. Nice to hear Tangerine Dream. Ricochet?

[@pspboy7]

You can always tell Jim Burns art from the rest. So organic!

[@MartianStories]

This is a great vid, and I remember a lot of these. It would have much better had you not moved the cam, simply posted each pic. You transition out of the pics too quick, while moving the cam, and it's hard to make out much about these pics because of it. Just show the pics. They are nice enough without putting effects and cam movement to "spice them up."

[@Joyfulcheese]

Watching this just makes me wish the leaders (corporate & political) of the world would get their heads out of their asses and get this planet fixed so we can start building towards the kind of future dreamed of in the golden age(s) of sci-fi.

[@MrKirby2367]

Still have those books from when I was a kid. I feel so old…..

[@brendenharris8858]

es anyone remember scouring bookshops for 'papartiger' publications?

[@tweakiepop]

@trevizons Thats the exact book I have, somewhere, back at home haven't seen for 20 odd years....was trying to remember what it was called to look up again, cheers! Great smashed robots in deserts I remember....

[@CuteFuzzyWeasel]

I bet a lot of that stuff, if it was real, would be a pain in the ass to build.

[@danielduran7266]

Amazing!!!! i love it so much.

[@Khultan]

@xxnightopsxx On a planet with a finite surface and an ever expanding human race population who now can live longer, say 200, 500 years or more. What a brilliant idea. : (

[@trevizons]

Simply beautiful, you couldn't have chosen better music for your video, Tangerine Dream gives it the perfect depth for your depiction, I still have a wonderful book from 1979- 1980 called SPACE WARS WORLDS AND WEAPONS by Steven Eisler, I don't know if you are familiar with it, it's got some of the images and drawings you've chosen for this posting, and it's really great to watch even more of these concepts in a way you could only have done it ...

[@kennyhagan5781]

I separate sci fi art into two categories, Pre-Mobius and Post-Mobius.

[@jefftappan3091]

I had a hardbound book dealing with this topic years ago. Interesting artwork.

[@electricdisk]

Brilliant. The music choice is perfect. It would be nice if we could get a picture list/artist credit (where known) so we could collect some of these prints!

[@Jeffrey314159]

2:17 this imagery was used on the dust cover of an 1980's book of the seven best SciFi novels by HG Wells

[@ActiveStorage]

But need want and work out of interest and personal passion is possible and done today. Lots of people today do things only out of love of doing it and it is very fulfilling for them. It's not about social structure or technological development of our civilization in my opinion. Its a question of personal perception of reality Someone in the future might still find all the things you are talking about as boring or unfulfilling. Just like today some love modern art, and some think its boring

[@ArtAgent13]

Apparently you have not read the rest of my comments for this video. I happen to work in all the different mediums, therefore I am not invalidating any taste. I do indeed subscribe to the mentality of "To each his own!" I was trained in the traditional mediums before the digital age, so I can appreciate what it took to produce such images as those being shown in this video. If you have tried it, I'm sure you can too.

[@munstrumridcully]

not necessarily.once technology reaches a point where need want and work for reasons other than interest and personal passion have been eliminated, people may well not deem the exercise of their passions in a universe at play, where art culture science and entertainment are all done only out of love of doing it, as fulfilling as can possibly be and no longer long for a distant future.

[@ArtAgent13]

I could not agree more. I myself use multiple media to produce my art. I now own and use several digital art applications on the very computer I am using to type this message. I regularly submit my art at sites like Renderosity, and PDFLives. I am a member of several artist's communities. As an artist from before the digital age, I still like to do it the old way as well, and I am practicing at combining the old and the new. My avatar pic is digital made by me.

[@JoelRSmith]

Anybody know what this Sci Fi novel was called?? There is this ship that is sent out from Earth to search for extraterrestrial life, and is captained by this guy who basically lives forever. The main character is also someone who has a long life, but every so often they knock out his memory so he doesn't know who he really is. The main character eventually kills the captain and leads the ship back to earth.

[@ArtAgent13]

Sadly, you are correct about that. Still, there are a lot of authors and artists with real imagination that are doing there thing even now. Of course some of the best even done was during the Golden Ages of Science Fiction. Many of these writers and artists had vision that is sorely lacking among most of the authors and artists of today. I will always believe the true greats of the genre are the ones with imagination.

[@ArtAgent13]

Apparently you did not read my 2nd post for this video, in which I pointed out that I am into doing digital art also. I even pointed out that I'm not putting digital art down in my original post. All I was saying is that the artist who did these works did not have the benefit of using digital aid. It is not about the medium an artist uses; rather it is about the imagination and the ability to express it. Before you jump me you need to get your facts together and know what I said.

[@ArtAgent13]

I have to say that I too did it the old way. When I was growing up, and even into my early to middle age adult life, the tools for digital art were nonexistent. I still have some of my oldest paintbrushes. Now I am able to produce art like never before using the digital art software. I still like to draw & paint the old way though. Not saying I;m as good as these old classic Sci Fi artists, but I do have a small following.

[@TheIraqiforce]

Im sorry but iam going to disagree with you. So many things were invented during the islamic golden age and thats because we put our efforts into knowledge and into books and not war, repeating again. Well, If the second islamic golden age is going to happen people have predicted that our knowledge will reach far beyond our imagination which will eventuall lead to stuff like this easily. You will be very suprised to find out the stuff the golden age contributed to.

[@AntiMatter3000]

Future will be more stable..trust me. Most countries realize most wars are damaging..you'll more than likely never see war on a large scale war again such as the Great Wars[world wars]. We'll mostly just fight for influence in third world countries[still bad, but not nearly as bad as the former] The future will be great.

[@munstrumridcully]

haha, no, i totally get what you mean., i don't see the need to assign agency to nature to marvel at the wonders natural selection can and does produce. I think it's even more amazing that there is no intent behind evolution, and that evolution doesn't provide the best solution, just a better one, but even those solutions are magnificent =)

[@munstrumridcully]

those are a tiny fraction of humanity, and tend to be the most satisfied. Those in the future may hold such as boring and tedious, my only point is that it is possible that it won't after a certain level of civilization, perhaps a type 2-3 civilization. Maybe they will yearn for type 7, or maybe they will become content as virtual demigods

[@MikDonsen]

It's ironic, people use to fill sci fi full of new idea's and plots because it was impossible to imagine 3 dimensional laser battles, and ships that could literally float in the sky. Nowadays they fill sci fi, full of cgi animations, because its impossible to imagine these films actually having new ideas and plots,

[@dfghj241]

trully, its beautifull, but i don't think digital art should be looked as a downgrade, its more like a expansion of the avaiable tools to make art, its up to the artists to use the new tools to make even better "visions of the future", or to just better express himself... im all up to a mix of all of them!